Foreign secretary says US president is right on need for rebuilding but says ‘Palestinians must be able to live and prosper in homelands’

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has condemned President Trump’s plans for Gaza as “unacceptable and dangerous”, saying there “must be no ethnic cleansing”.

In a post on Bluesky he said:

After months of collective punishment and the death of over 40,000 in Gaza, any suggestion Palestinians should be removed from their home is unacceptable and dangerous.

There must be no ethnic cleansing.

Donald Trump is right. Looking at those scenes, Palestinians who have been horrendously displaced over so many months of war, it is clear that Gaza is lying in rubble.

We have always been clear in our view that we must see two states and we must see Palestinians able to live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza, in the West Bank. That is what we want to get to.